Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Home of Hells Canyon and Heavens Gate Lookout: Abbr. : IDA

Hells Canyon in the northwestern US is the deepest river gorge in the country. The river that carved out the canyon is the Snake River, itself a tributary of the Columbia.

Heavens Gate Lookout is a viewpoint in Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon. The viewpoint has spectacular views of the canyon and the Seven Devils Mountains.

16 St. ___, only nation named for a woman : LUCIA

The Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia has a population of less than 200,000. Remarkably, Saint Lucia has produced two Nobel Laureates: economist Arthur Lewis and poet Derek Walcott.

17 1968 Clint Eastwood western with six nooses on its poster : HANG ‘EM HIGH

“Hang ‘Em High” is a Clint Eastwood western. Eastwood plays the lead, and Eastwood’s production company funded the movie.

18 Much-trapped animal in wilderness America : OTTER

Male and female otters are known as dogs and bitches, with the offspring called pups. Males and females are are sometimes referred to as boars and sows. A collection of otters is a bevy, family, lodge or perhaps a romp. When in water, a collection of otters can be called a raft.

19 It’s hardly a Champagne cooler : ETE

In French, “été” (summer) is “la saison chaude” (the warm season).

Champagne is a historic province in the northeast of France that is famous for its sparkling white wine.

23 Cheer at a Texas football game : HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

The University of Texas at Austin was established back in 1883. UT Austin is known as one of the “Public Ivies”, a publicly-funded university at which a student can get an education comparable to that provided by the Ivy League. The school’s sports teams are known as the Texas Longhorns, named for the Longhorn cattle that is now the official “large animal” of the state of Texas.

29 Enemy agency in “Get Smart” : KAOS

The satirical comedy series called “Get Smart” was the creation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and starred Don Adams as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. Agent 86 worked for the spy agency CONTROL, alongside the lovely Agent 99. CONTROL’s sworn enemy was the criminal organization called KAOS. Smart’s shoe phone was a hilarious prop used in almost every episode. When Smart dialed the number 117, the shoe converted into a gun. Cool stuff …

30 Cleaner brand with the slogan “Hasn’t scratched yet!” : BON AMI

Bon Ami cleanser was introduced just a few years after Bon Ami soap went to market in 1886. The cleanser was marketed by emphasising its “non-scratch” properties. The label showed a chick coming out of an egg, the idea being that a newly hatched chick hasn’t yet scratched the ground looking for worms and insects.

40 Something much sold on St. Patrick’s Day : ALE

The first Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in the US was held in 1600, in St. Augustine, Florida. There is some evidence that the first St. Paddy’s Day parade was held the following year, in the same locale. The annual parade in Boston dates back to 1737, in New York City dates back to 1762, and in Chicago dates back to 1843.

41 PBS series since 1974 : NOVA

“Nova” is an excellent science television series on PBS. “Nova” was created back in 1974, and was inspired by a very similar BBC show called “Horizon”, a show that I grew up with. Many “Nova” episodes are actually co-productions with the BBC with an American narrator used for the PBS broadcasts and a British narrator for the BBC broadcasts.

42 Some long sentences : RUN-ONS

A “run-on sentence” is one in which two separate clauses are linked without appropriate conjugation. Two examples would be:

43 Emcee’s need : MIKE

A microphone is sometimes referred to as a “mike” or “mic”.

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

52 Short-term job : GIG

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

54 Rob who directed “This Is Spinal Tap” : REINER

The great director and actor Rob Reiner first came to prominence playing “Meathead”, Archie and Edith Bunker’s son-in-law in “All in the Family”. Since then, Reiner has directed a long string of hit movies including, “The Princess Bride”, “Stand by Me”, “This Is Spinal Tap”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “Misery” and “A Few Good Men”.

“This Is Spın̈al Tap” is a rock musical mockumentary about the fictional band Spinal Tap, directed by the great Rob Reiner. I love Rob Reiner’s work, but this movie … not so much …

55 15-time N.B.A. All-Star Duncan : TIM

Tim Duncan is a professional basketball player from La Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Duncan was a natural swimmer, with his eyes on the 1992 Olympic Games. He was forced to turn his attention to basketball when Hurricane Hugo destroyed St. Croix’s only Olympic-sized pool in 1989.

62 Tall, slender wineglass : FLUTE

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

Down

1 Fall color : OCHER

Ocher is a light, yellowy-brown color, although variations of the pigment are possible such as red ocher and purple ocher. “Ocher” is usually spelled “ochre” on the other side of the pond.

5 Counterfeiter trackers, in old lingo : T-MEN

A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (T stands for “Treasury”).

The responsibility for investigating the use of counterfeit US currency lies with the Secret Service, which was part of the Department of Treasury until 2003. As a result of the USA Patriot Act that became law in 2001, the Secret Service was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.

9 Dillydallier : SLOTH

“Sloth”, meaning “indolence, sluggishness”, comes from the Middle English word “slowe”, the same root for our contemporary word “slow”. The animal, the sloth, is so named as it exhibits slow-moving behavior.

21 Eponymous hypnotist : MESMER

Franz Mesmer was a German physician, and the person who coined the phrase “animal magnetism”. Back then the term described a purported magnetic field that resided in the bodies of animate beings. Mesmer also lent his name to our term “mesmerize”.

25 Nut : KOOK

“Kooky” is a slang word meaning “out there, crazy”. The term has been around since the beatnik era, and it may be a shortened version of the word “cuckoo”.

27 ___ Terr. (geographical designation until 1889) : DAK

The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and ceased to exist with the admission to the Union of the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The territory was split into two states in 1889 largely due to lobbying by the Republican Party, which enjoyed a lot of support in the Dakota Territory. The admission of two states added to the political power of the party in the US Senate, by adding four safe Republican seats.

30 Clothing item with hooks : BRA

The word “brassière” is French in origin, but it isn’t the word that the French use for a “bra”. In France, what we call a bra is known as a “soutien-gorge”, translating to “held under the neck”. The word “brassière” is indeed used in France but there it describes a baby’s undershirt, a lifebelt or a harness. “Brassière” comes from the Old French word for an “arm protector” in a military uniform (“bras” is the French for “arm”). Later “brassière” came to mean “breastplate” and from there the word was used for a type of woman’s corset. The word jumped into English around 1900.

31 Chemical variation : ISOMER

In the world of chemistry, isomers are two compounds with the same chemical formula (i.e. the same atomic constituents), but with a slightly different arrangement of the atoms relative to each other. The differing arrangement of atoms often leads to different chemical properties.

33 Champagne specification : BRUT

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

Brut Nature

Extra Brut

Brut

Extra Dry

Dry

Semi-Dry

Sweet

34 Halo and Gears of War : XBOX GAMES

The Xbox line of video game consoles is made by Microsoft. The original Xbox platform was followed by Xbox 360 and more recently by Xbox One. Microsoft’s Xbox competes directly with Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Wii.

38 “Heroides” poet : OVID

The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is known today simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil. Although he was immensely popular during his own lifetime, Ovid spent the last ten years of his life in exile. He fell foul of Emperor Augustus, although what led to this disfavor isn’t truly understood.

39 Cosine of 0 : ONE

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio: a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are secant, cosecant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.

46 Company that merged with Heinz in 2015 : KRAFT

The Kraft brand name originated with Canadian James L. Kraft. It was James L. Kraft who first patented processed cheese

The HJ Heinz Company is an American concern that is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1869 by Henry John Heinz. It was Heinz himself who came up with the marketing slogan of “57 Varieties”. The “57” really doesn’t have any relevance to the range of products available as Heinz chose the “5” because it was his lucky number, and the “7” because it was his wife’s lucky number.

48 Get ready for a Mr. Universe contest, say : OIL UP

There are several bodybuilding competitions that have used or continue to use the title “Mr. Universe”. I think that the original dates back to 1953.

49 Benjamin : C-NOTE

Benjamin Franklin is featured on one side of the hundred-dollar bill (also called a “C-spot, C-note, benjamin”), and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on the other side. There is a famous error in the image of Independence Hall. If you look closely at the clock face at the top of the building you can see that the “four” is written in Roman numerals as “IV”. However, on the actual clock on Independence Hall, the “four” is denoted by “IIII”, which has been the convention for clock faces for centuries.

53 Hit musical with the song “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” : GYPSY

“Gypsy” is a 1962 musical film based on the book by Gypsy Rose Lee titled “Gypsy: A Memoir”. Stars of the movie are Natalie Wood as Louise Hovick (Gypsy’s real name) and Rosalind Russell as Gypsy’s mother Rose Hovick. By the way, the real-life Gypsy Rose Lee became a fiction author in 1942 when her mystery thriller was published called “The G-String Murders”. The novel was adapted into a movie a couple of years later and released as “Lady of Burlesque” starring Barbara Stanwyck.

56 N.Y.S.E. and Nasdaq: Abbr. : MKTS

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) can give some quite descriptive ticker symbols to companies, for example:

Anheuser-Busch (BUD, for “Budweiser”)

Molson Coors Brewing Company (TAP, as in “beer tap”)

Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB, for “Ludwig van Beethoven”)

Sotheby’s (BID, for the auction house)

The Nasdaq has some descriptive symbols to represent companies. Here are some examples:

HOG – Harley Davidson

HEINY – Heineken

ROCK – Gibraltar Industries

GRR – The Asian Tigers Fund

BEN – Franklin Resources

TWNK – Hostess Brands

59 Tanning fig. : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

60 Madre’s hermano : TIO

In Spanish, a “tio” (uncle) is the “hermano del padre o de la madre” (brother of the father or the mother).

61 1970s-’80s cause, for short : ERA

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written by the American suffragist leader, Alice Paul. Although Paul was successful in her campaign to get passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution (guaranteeing voting rights regardless of sex), her 1923 Equal Rights Amendment didn’t make it to the Senate floor until 1972. The amendment was passed by the Senate, and then headed to the state legislatures for the required ratification. 38 states had to approve the legislation for the amendment to be adopted, but only 35 states voted in favor before the deadline. The amendment is still pending, although about half of the fifty states have adopted the ERA into their state constitutions.